The X Factor
by vixenmoon
Summary: Ross and Rachel get married in Vegas. This time, Emily was there how does this change the outcome? Ch 2 The Moring After
1. Intersection

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Intersection

The two young women caught sight of the Chapel of Love. They had been walking around looking at the glitter of Las Vegas. They'd avoided losses at the roulette table, Elvis impersonators, and had just given a persistent admirer the slip.

'Oh, look,' said one, 'Let's go in.' Both were a little drunk but at least one of them was with it enough to say,

'Much as I love you Felicity, I don't love you like that.' Both, as their accents proclaimed, were English.

'I'd just like to see if anyone really does get married here, and what kind of people they are.'

'How would you get to see a wedding?'

'We could volunteer to be witnesses. Witnesses to the world's shortest marriages, that would be something,' Felicity said.

'You already have been a witness to the world's shortest marriage. I didn't even make the honeymoon.'

'Oh Emily,' said Felicity contritely, 'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring that up.' Emily was looking stony faced, and Felicity took her by the arm, 'I really am sorry, it was stupid of me. Clumsy and thoughtless.' Emily was still not looking at her, and Felicity really feared that she had upset her cousin deeply. It was surprising that she was still so affected by it all.

Then she realised that Emily wasn't giving her the cold shoulder, she was simply staring past her and Felicity turned to look for herself. A man, tall dark haired was walking, arm in arm with a woman with light brown hair. They were both absorbed in each other, giggling and whispering to each other. Felicity frowned,

'Isn't that…'

'My ex husband. And that's the woman he really wanted to marry,' Emily said in a hard voice, as Ross and Rachel, oblivious to them, went into the Chapel of Love. 'I wonder what took them so long? We were divorced months ago.'

'Come on,' Felicity said, turning Emily around, leading her away, 'I'm sure there's a cabaret or something we can see.' She was regretting her idea of coming to have a look at the chapel, though how was she to know that they'd see Emily's ex there?

'You're going to have to trust me,' Emily said, as Felicity led her along, 'That's what he said.'

'Yes, he's a liar,' Felicity said, 'You're better off without him.'

'That's why he never returned my call. Ha,' Emily said, stumbling slightly, because too much Cointreau will have that effect, 'She was probably living with him by them and erased my message anyway.'

'She looks the type who would,' Felicity said. 'Now let's try the roulette table, or black jack.'

'No,' Emily said stopping suddenly, giving Felicity a jolt. 'Let's go back and be witnesses! How about that? Wouldn't they be surprised to see me!' Felicity grabbed hold of her arm again to stop her going back.

'No Emily, that's a very bad idea. They've got nothing to do with you any more. We've come to get away from it all remember? It's just bad luck they've come here. Appalling in fact.' She got Emily facing the right way and nearly crashed into another couple walking arm in arm.

All four stared at one another. Monica and Chandler had, like Ross and Rachel, been too absorbed in each other and what they were planning to do, to give much thought to who they might see along the way. At this moment, the idea that anyone else existed in the world was just a silly rumour, not worth bothering with, so there was a momentary shock that first, there were other people. This was followed by the bigger shock of recognising who one of these particular people was.

'Emily!' Monica exclaimed, 'what are you doing here?' If Ross and Rachel were around, it was not surprising to Emily that Monica and Chandler should be there. What was surprising was that they were arm in arm. That they were an item was not something that she remembered. The surprise and her slight disinhibition made Emily blurt out the question,

'Are you getting married too?'

'Married?' Chandler asked, guiltily, because it was to be secret from everyone, including from women he had no expectation of ever seeing again, and also because to hear someone else say it out loud was confronting.

'Too?' Monica asked. 'what do you mean, "Too"?'

'I saw Ross and Rachel go into the Chapel of Love,' Emily said, pointing vaguely backwards.

'Are you sure?' Chandler asked in amazement while Monica stared in surprised.

'They went in all right,' Emily said, 'Don't ask me what they're doing. Maybe they went in to paint the ceiling, not to get married.' She gave a little shrug. She might be a little tipsy but she knew what she had seen.

'When was this?' Chandler asked.

'Just now,' Felicity said.

'We'd better hurry,' Monica said, 'er, nice to see you Emily and…' she knew she'd seen the other woman before but she couldn't remember her name.

'Felicity,' Felicity said.

'Felicity, but we'd better go,' Monica said.

'See you,' Chandler said as he and Monica hurried away.

All thought of what they had been planning to do was pushed out of their heads.

'How could they do this?' Monica asked in wonder. It seemed to her that Ross and Rachel's time had well and truly been and gone. If there was a chance, it was before Ross met Emily, more than a year ago, or perhaps the crucial time had been even earlier. What had made them do this? Had they really thought all of this through?

'Maybe they've been keeping things a secret,' Chandler said, unconvincingly. When he and Monica had kept things a secret, it had been a very badly kept secret indeed. In any case, both Chandler and Monica believed that they could spot the signs of such deception, since they had practiced it themselves.

'No, it must be some kind of mistake,' Monica said. At one time, this would have been her dearest wish, to see her best friend marry her brother, but now her dearest wishes were bound up in Chandler. She also knew that it was what Rachel and Ross wanted to do that mattered, not any pretty picture in Monica's head.

They reached the doors of the Chapel of Love, just in time to see Ross and Rachel emerge and immediately start off in different directions.

'They haven't got married,' Monica said, breathing a sigh of relief, 'They've – ' but they hadn't argued, they were drunk, almost paralytic. Ross and Rachel found each other and eventually set off in the same direction. They hadn't noticed Monica and Chandler, who didn't feel like breaking in on them. They had no idea what they would say if they did.

'So what do we do now?' Chandler asked, of no-one in particular.


	2. The Morning After

'Do you think they really got married?' Monica asked. 'I mean, would they really marry them, like that? They were drunk!'

'I don't know, let's ask,' Chandler said, and led Monica to the door of the Chapel. They walked up to the attendant who had looked up with interest at their approach. Chandler asked,

'Excuse me, that couple who just left, did they just get married?'

'Yes they did. You two could get married next, if you like,' the attendant said helpfully. 'There's no-one ahead of you and it won't take long.'

'Didn't you realise they were drunk?' Monica exclaimed at this attitude, one that wouldn't have bothered her ten minutes ago, before she'd seen Ross and Rachel. 'How totally irresponsible!'

'Lots of couples are a little bit cheerful when they come here,' said the attendant, taking umbrage. 'Some couples could use a bit of cheerfulness.'

'Some people could use a few manners!' Monica retorted. Looking at Chandler, the attendant said,

'If you'd like to return with someone else sir, I'm sure we could get you married tonight.'

'We'd prefer a ceremony with more meaning,' Chandler said, hurrying Monica out the door before she could explode.

'So they really did do it,' Chandler said, once the door were closed behind them.

'I know,' she said. 'Maybe they wanted to get married,' she said. 'Maybe, they didn't want a fuss. Both of them have wedding disasters they'd want to forget.' Suddenly they noticed Joey and Phoebe running up. It couldn't be… 'Are you getting married too?'

'No,' Phoebe said, 'We're here to see Ross and Rachel get married. They left a note.'

'You just missed them,' Chandler said.

'What did the note say?' Monica asked. Phoebe handed it to her. Monica stared for a while, turned it upside down and stared again.

'Well?' Chandler asked.

'I think it says they decided that it was inevitable that they'd have to get married. I think that word's inevitable, it's hard to be sure.' Monica said. Chandler looked over her shoulder,

'I think the word is invited.'

'Then what does the rest of the sentence say?' Monica asked, 'Because that doesn't make sense.'

'I don't know, maybe I'd have to be drunk to be able to understand it,' Chandler said.

'It's all just so strange,' Phoebe said, 'Not only do Ross and Rachel get married but then Emily turns up.'

'You've seen her too?' Monica asked in surprise.

'On our way here,' Phoebe said. 'She was with some other woman. Joey wanted to go after her, but we didn't want to miss the wedding, though it seems like we did. I miss all of Ross's weddings.' She sighed at the end of this.

'Maybe that's why Ross and Rachel got married,' Joey said, 'Maybe they saw her and thought of weddings and then thought, why don't we get married?' The other three looked at him and he said, 'It's only a suggestion.' If the four of them had seen Emily, then why not Ross and Rachel.

'Since they were obviously drunk, that might be the reason as any other,' Chandler said.

'What are we going to do about it?' Monica asked.

'What should we do?' Phoebe asked. 'It might be when they wake up tomorrow that they don't mind. Ross has loved her since the ninth grade, sure, maybe not continuously, and they've both dated other people, but maybe it's meant to be. You know, after all this time.'

'But why now?' Monica asked. 'They haven't been more than friends for a long time.'

'Look, we're worrying for nothing. If they think they've made a mistake they can get an annulment.'

'As long as they know they're married,' Monica said, 'What if they forget?'

'We'll remind them,' Chandler said. 'Now if no-one else wants to get married, let's go back to the hotel.'

Monica, Chandler, Phoebe and Joey breakfasted together. They had decided not to get up early, banking on the fact that Ross and Rachel would not be up early. They waited so long for them to turn up that they had begun to wonder whether they had been wrong in this.

'Maybe they got lost,' Monica said, 'They might not have been able to find the hotel…' Then Ross and Rachel walked in.

'Good morning, Dr and Mrs Geller,' Joey said. They had changed clothes, but from the expressions on their faces and their very manner, anyone would be forgiven for thinking they had slept in them.

'Don't,' moaned Ross.

'Not so loud,' Rachel said collapsing into a chair.

'I can't believe you got married,' Monica exclaimed.

'Wha- how did you know?'

'You left a note,' Phoebe said.

'Why didn't you stop us?' Rachel said.

'We missed the wedding. Monica and Chandler saw you but you'd done by then.'

'We're getting an annulment,' Rachel said. She had poured herself some juice and started drinking it.

'Yeah,' Ross said, a little dolefully.

'Don't worry Ross, you should be good at this by now,' Chandler said. Monica kicked him under the table.

'I've never had an annulment before,' he said. 'It's not the same as a divorce.' The expression, buy two get a third free, made itself known to Chandler's consciousness, but his sense of self preservation prevented him from seeing what the reaction would be.

'Oh Ross,' Monica said.

'So you guys didn't plan it this way?' Phoebe asked. Rachel drained the last of her juice and stared.

'Planned? No way.' She poured more juice.

'There was nothing that made you think it was a good idea?' Phoebe asked.

'Why'd you ask?' Rachel asked. Ross was looking at Phoebe curiously. Even in his self absorbed state, he couldn't help noticing that there seemed to be a point that question of hers. He looked at Monica and Chandler, who seemed to understand what Phoebe was getting at. Joey was relaxed, eating some toast.

'I just wondered whether anything made you decide to get married. On this trip. For instance, maybe seeing something.'

'Something?'

'Someone,' Phoebe amended.

'No-o,' Rachel said, 'Unfortunately we saw a marriage celebrant, but I don't think it was a case of, 'hey, there's a marriage celebrant doing nothing, let's get married.'' She gave a sudden look at Ross. Maybe that was it. The details of the day before were unclear. 'It doesn't matter why we did it, the important thing is to undo it.' Ross was less happy to let it go. He had one hell of a hangover but he could spot a certain attitude in the room. They knew something. 'Is there something we should know?' Ross asked. He couldn't imagine what, but why imagine when they could just say what it was? Looks were exchanged.

'It's really nothing Ross,' Monica said, 'If you'd have seen her, you'd have remember her for sure.'

'We were totally shocked to see her, totally,' Chandler said. 'We did wonder whether the shock made you and Rachel get married.'

'Will you kindly tell me what this is about?' Ross asked sarcastically. 'Who's _she_? The Queen of England?'

'Close,' Phoebe said. 'It's Emily.'


End file.
